According to a new study, a diet containing pasta does not necessarily pack on pounds. In fact, researchers in Italy (nice) found that Italian participants who ate a Mediterranean diet with pasta were more likely to have healthier BMIs and slimmer waists. Read: pasta was not associated with obesity.

Of course, this was only an observed association, and further research would be required to prove if pasta directly caused a healthy BMI. Still, a study of 23,000 participants is a significant blow to the assumption that pasta is nothing more than a (exceptionally delicious) carbo-loaded belly fattener. Get cooking.

Update, 7/6/16: As Mashable noted, this study was funded in part by the Barilla pasta group. However, the study says, "The funders had no role in study design, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of manuscripts and in the decision to submit the article for publication." Take it as you will.

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